(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Thu 21 August 2025 18:00, UK
Rock and roll isn’t known to be the most optimal thing someone can do for their health. The idea of playing music for a living is bound to be draining after a while, and even when someone like Joe Walsh was hitting rock bottom, he did have some regrets about not being able to do the best he could for some of his musical friends.
Then again, the tales of Walsh’s partying antics have become legendary at this point. He always took pride in being able to hang with the best of them when it came time to trash a hotel room, and when he eventually began hanging out with people like John Belushi, things were bound to get a lot more fun and a lot more dangerous. But compared to everyone else that stormed through any town they were in, Walsh always seemed like a lovable goofball at the end of the day.
He was more than happy to drink his way through whatever gig he could and make sure that he was giving everyone a great time whenever he tore through ‘Funk 49’ or started working with the Eagles. But even for someone who could write and play so well, even Glenn Frey and Don Henley had to be wondering what they were getting themselves into the minute that they heard about Walsh learning the best tricks in the book from Keith Moon.
Because if Walsh graduated from Excess University, Moon was the principal of the entire school. Compared to every other person in The Who, the drummer was an absolute animal when it came to every single piece of the rock and roll lifestyle, and there was never a dull moment with him because no one could properly guess whether a television was going to fly out of a window or a toilet would explode in the middle of the hotel room.
But while Walsh did sober up and get more mellow with age, he knew that lifestyle wasn’t to be idolised. He knew people could be in a great rock and roll band without having to drink, smoke and snort every single thing that was given to them, and as the Eagles entered the new millennium, the guitarist felt sorry to see Moon’s bandmate, John Entwistle, going through the same problems even into his old age.
Walsh may have been sober at that point, but he did remember wishing he could have done more for his friend, saying, “John and I were living in totally different worlds. I wasn’t sure whether I should, or even could, confront him. Ultimately, I was never able to sit down with John and say to him, ‘Hey, man, you’re fucking up.’ Back in those days, I was still trying to figure out my own sobriety. Now, all these years later, I feel quite comfortable in telling someone I care about, ‘Listen up, because I know what I’m talking about.’”
Even though Walsh ran the risk of being called a hypocrite thanks to how much he loved to party back in the day, he would have traded a thousand swipes at his ego if it meant getting his friend back from the brink. But after not taking care of himself or his personal life, ‘The Ox’ remained on the booze until he eventually passed away in 2002.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, Walsh has continued to use his platform to keep his goofball persona without having to rely on the booze to get him through any of his shows. It’s one thing to let loose every now and again, but the guitarist knew when the party was over, and he would have probably loved the idea of having some of his drinking buddies make it to the other side like he did.
Related Topics